Want ducks in my pond

[ovrszd]

If I understand correctly his "pond" is actually a natural lake. I think he said 80ft deep?

 

[MossRoad]

Here's a current satellite photo of a lake I've known for about 50 years. They used to rent boats on this lake for fishing. Now the deepest spot is about 2', no fish, and mostly cattails and lilly pads.



Here's another one that used to rent boats. Again, cattails and lilly pads have filled it in in 40 years.



And this last one I've been fishing for about 30 years. The area between the two lakes is now solid cattails. It used to be ONE lake when I started fishing there. No lillypads choking this one, just all cattails.

 

[MossRoad]

The process is called 'succession'.

A lake is formed by whatever reason. A stream gets dammed. A glaciers digs a hole. A guy digs a pond, etc...

As time goes on, decaying plants and sediments settle on the lake bottom, raising the bottom level until a time comes when it's level with the surrounding land. Cattails are just one part of that. It happens to all lakes eventually, given enough time.

 

[Streetcar]

Moss
How much development around the lakes. Many are filled in with erosion and settling from nearby developments

 

[WoodChuckDad]

f

I always have a variety of ducks in my lake. As long as there is open water - ie, not frozen over. Several years ago I even had a Snowy Egret stop in for a couple hours. Blue Herons will stop by to look for a fish or a frog. I don't feed them - they dive and get something where its shallow - on either end.
The little red circle at the far end is the house for my resident family of beavers. They have built a low dam on the outlet and helped maintain a fairly constant level in the lake. View attachment 582601

I like your pond. Especially the rock wall side. Very attractive.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Moss, i would guess they got filled in due to erosion. It got shallow enough to support cattails.

 

[MossRoad]

Moss
How much development around the lakes. Many are filled in with erosion and settling from nearby developments

No development on the last two. The first one has a small development on about 1/16 of the shore, however, the lake filled in before the development was started. And no creeks flowing into them, either. It is farm land, though. So you have rain runoff and fertilizer feeding the plant life, so it speeds up the process. But even without it, all lakes eventually fill in and become land.

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, i would guess they got filled in due to erosion. It got shallow enough to support cattails.

Nope. No erosion. And no flowing water. It's a natural process that all lakes succumb to sooner or later.

 

[MossRoad]

This picture, from here:
Ecological succession - Wikipedia

explains it pretty well. Note the cattails.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Nope. No erosion. And no flowing water. It's a natural process that all lakes succumb to sooner or later.

Ill still argue it is probably a combination. Normal rains bring in silt. Plants grow up in shallow edges, and causes more gunk to accumulate. Never seen a lake with no water running in.